Michael Phillis

A single safe-sex brochure depicting two men engaging in sexual relations remains posted in the Student Union following a University directive to remove the posters last week.

University officials removed the posters from the office window of the Radical Student Union last Friday, according to Alex Peterkin, a member of the campus organization.

RSU members reposted a copy of the brochure in the upper right corner of their office window today.

“The administration wants us to take them down,” he said. “We’re going to continue educating about safe sex, minority identities and homophobia on campus.”

According to University spokesman Ed Blaguszewski, the RSU office is University property and the administration has the right in “specific and very limited cases” to remove objects deemed inappropriate.

“We thought that was the appropriate thing to do,” Blaguszewski said. “They occupy the office though it is University property. The University can take the material down if the organization decides not to comply with what the University decided.”

University of Massachusetts Republican Club President Brad DeFlumeri – who led the campaign to have the posters removed – said he expected the group to lose face penalties if they continued to defy the University decision.

“I expect them to be evicted from their office and derecognized as an RSO and to lose funding for defying a direct order from the University administration,” DeFlumeri said. “I expect it to be down for good by Friday.”

DeFlumeri organized a “rally for public decency” on the steps of the Student Union last Friday calling on the RSU to take the brochures down. The rally came a day after the University handed down the decision removing the flyers.

“The University administration has concluded that the brochure in question should no longer be posted in a window of the Student Union, in a public place where members of the public can come across it in daily business,” said Blaguszewski in a statement last week. “Many people may find it offensive.”

According to DeFlumeri, if the posters remain posted beyond Friday, the Republican Club would hold another rally highlighting the controversy surrounding the brochure, which DeFlumeri calls “pornographic.”

“They don’t own the office, the school does,” said DeFlumeri. “They have no right to defy the University which has asked them to take the posters down.”

Blaguszewski said that while the administration did not want an intrusive presence in the day-to-day operation of the RSU, the University had the ability to “apply community standards as [the University] deems appropriate.”

“We have one flyer up right now and we’re going to leave that one up,” said Peterkin. “We’re just going to continue doing what we’re doing.”